This weekend Jonathan and I did the Civil War reenacting thing up in Ferndale, near the U.S.-Canada border. It was Jonathan’s first reenacting experience. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough gear to go around so I watched the battles from afar. That gave me ample time, however, to snap pics with my iPhone. A few of them:

Over a game of Shut the Box (memo to the WSGC: we didn't play for money).

This weekend Cole, Rhonda, Reese and Finn joined me for some Civil War re-enacting at Port Gamble on the south end of the Kitsap Peninsula. Never been there (or even heard of it) but it was a pretty cool place I gotta say. I really can’t see any reason why it couldn’t be a destination along the lines of a Friday Harbor. It’s certainly a lot closer to Seattle.

Today I joined John Strand and Bernie Moskowitz on a day trip to Yakima for a Civil War reenactment at Fort Simcoe. The Fort was originally established for the white man to keep their eyes on the natives. It’s been there ever since. One of the four buildings that make up the Fort is reportedly quite haunted. Ghosthunters, anyone?

That's me, fourth from left.

We staged two battles for the one hundred or so civilians who ventured out into the middle of nowhere for our D-Day reenactment. In between battles a few reenactors and some of the kids and I played a modified version of town ball — basically the Civil War era’s version of baseball.

Okay, this isn't from Fort Semcoe, but we did get in a good game of town ball.

After roughly two years of thinking and talking about getting involved in Civil War re-enacting, I finally took the plunge. I signed on with the 4th U.S. Infantry, Company C, an outfit based in historic Fort Steilacoom near Tacoma. I even started a blog for the Company.

This weekend was my first big outing. The 4th put on a School of the Regular — basically a weekend of drilling, eating circa 1863, and hanging out with good guys. I’ve already blogged on the weekend in full on the 4th blog so I won’t again here — except to post a few pics:

Private Jenkins.

Lining up to get afternoon rations.

Onion, hardtack, coffee, rice, bacon -- just like the soldiers did it.